God’s Plan For The Resurrection…And Us (Luke 24:44-53) [Resurrection Sunday 2025]

4/20/2025

Introduction

Today is Resurrection Sunday, where most Christians take extra joy in commemorating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. That being said, do you ever get the feeling that sometimes these reminders about what Jesus did on Easter with His death, burial, and resurrection do not really stick with you? Perhaps they do not quite seem to have the lasting impact on your heart and life that they should when you get home from church and the new week begins. Even more foundationally, perhaps you have wondered why you should even celebrate Easter to begin with. Lord willing today will be different for all of us. Our endeavor this morning will be to not only see why it is worth celebrating, but also to see more clearly how God’s plan for Jesus’ resurrection can and should greatly affect our lives today and every day.

To do this, we are going to look at a number of Scriptures to help us get God’s perspective on what happened and what it means. We will begin by reading Luke 24:44-53. This text occurs right after Jesus’ resurrection when He first appeared to most of the disciples. Understand their situation. Their minds were staggered. They could hardly believe that He was really alive, and standing before them. To prove He was not some kind of spirit He ate some broiled fish in their presence. After that, these verses record the gist of what He told them to help them understand how His death and resurrection fit into God’s plan and to help prepare them for the world-changing mission that God had for them to carry out.

Luke 24:44-53 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 “You are witnesses of these things. 49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising God.

Notice the two main aspects of what is going on here. First He took time to explain to the disciples how His death, burial, and resurrection had to happen to fulfill Scriptures. He opened their minds to really understand this. Secondly, He ties all of this to them proclaiming repentance for forgiveness of sins in Jesus name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. Understanding would result in life-changing action.

After explaining this He instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for God’s Spirit to empower them. Then He returned to heaven. This is a compressed summary to highlight the important details. The other gospels record some of His other appearances over 40 days. Here, though, the Gospel of Luke ends with them worshipping, having great joy, and continually praising God in the temple as they awaited His promise. Right away Jesus’ words had a continuous, revolutionary impact on their lives as they saw God’s amazing plan and purpose for them by His resurrection.

Now look at Acts 26:22-23. It records Paul’s defense of his life and ministry before King Agrippa while he was imprisoned in Caesarea. Notice how similar what he says is to what Jesus said.

Acts 26:22-23 “So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; 23 that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

When Jesus directly confronted Paul with who He was on that Damascus Road it had the exact same impact as what Jesus commanded the first disciples to do. He testified to both small and great. Why? Paul saw that Jesus fulfilled what the Hebrew Scriptures said about His suffering, death, and resurrection. He also saw that the whole purpose of what Jesus did was so that both Jews and Gentiles would hear of the light of salvation from sin through what Jesus did. The rest of Paul’s life was then dedicated to zealously proclaiming this to the ends of the earth. He lived and died proclaiming this message. He suffered. He travelled. He sacrificed. He served. He relentlessly proclaimed the light of salvation from sin to Jews and Gentiles despite beatings, slander, persecution, abuse, imprisonments, shipwreck, deprivation, suffering and anything else that resulted from it. Why? He took what Jesus did and said at true, honest, face-value and lived in light of it. He simply followed what Jesus declared to be the purpose of the resurrection. Then he carried it out to the best of his ability with the gifts and enablement that God had given. He actually saw and believed in the resurrection power of Jesus and it revolutionized every aspect of his life.

That, my friends, is what the resurrection of Jesus can and should do for each of us as well. But for it to do so, we need to see it as Jesus did. We need to see it like He showed it to the disciples. Let’s pray now and ask God to show it to us now, today, more clearly than we every have seen it before.

God, we come before You today asking You to help us also understand what the Scriptures said about Your suffering and resurrection. Help us see its purpose. If we have not done so already, help us to trust in You ourselves for salvation from our sins because of what You did on the cross. Please help us to also see the fuller picture of Your coming and work and of our amazing place in it. Please ignite a fire under us, a zeal, to live out that purpose like You did for the early disciples. Help us to know You like never before with the true power of Your resurrection in our lives. Help us to proclaim it to the world.

The Scriptures

The question before us now is, what did Jesus show to His disciples in the Hebrew Scriptures that He fulfilled? What did He show to them that made such a difference for them for the rest of their lives that made them willing to be martyrs, that made them willing to sacrifice everything, that made them want to share Jesus with others beginning with where they were at in Jerusalem, and then to cross land and sea to share with every one else in the whole world? What did Jesus show His disciples?

While we do not know the exact words that Jesus shared in these situations, thankfully God has left us His Word to give us everything that we need to know to be able to go back and see what Jesus fulfilled so that it can radically impact us as well. Let’s start by looking at what Jesus said at the beginning of His ministry in His own hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:16-21.

Luke 4:16-21 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus flat out told them that He was the fulfillment of this prophecy. He came to bring the good news of true freedom. In Him was the favorable blessing of the Lord and true release from captivity. In Him was true recovery of sight to the blind, both spiritually and physically. As John the Baptist proclaimed in John 1:29, Jesus was the perfect lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus Himself proclaimed in Matthew 20:28 that the “Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He also said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” All of that pictures precisely what He came to do in His first coming. He came to free us from the slavery of sin and to ransom us from the judgment that our sin caused. But that was not the end of His work. Those verses which Jesus read in Luke 4 were from Isaiah 61. They give us a powerful clue to that. Jesus stopped His quote in a specific place in the middle of a sentence. The rest of the prophecy shows the fuller picture and why He also had to rise from the dead.

Isaiah 61:1-4 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. 4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. (Bold added for emphasis of what comes right after Jesus’ quote.)

Did you catch that? God’s purpose in Jesus’ coming is far more than just freedom from our captivity to sin. Jesus is also coming to bring the day of vengeance of our God. He is coming to comfort ALL who mourn. He is coming to bring glory to God by righting all wrongs, rebuilding the ruins, and fulfilling all the rest of God’s prophecies in Scripture. Yet, Jesus did not fulfill all that in His first coming. So there was no way He could stay dead after His suffering! He had so much more to do!! He still does.

We also see the necessity of His resurrection in Matthew 12:15-21. At this point in Jesus’ ministry the religious leaders had turned against Him and were seeking ways to trip Him up and destroy Him.

Matthew 12:15-21 But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, 16 and warned them not to tell who He was. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 18 “BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. 19 “HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. 20 “A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. 21 “AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.”

Here we see some amazing things. In His first coming Jesus did not come to institute His authority and judge the world. He did not come and institute the Davidic kingdom. He did not come in power and might. He did not even snuff out a battered reed or a smoldering wick. He did not fight back against evil and bring His judgment. Rather, He stopped Peter from using the sword when the wicked rulers came in the dead of night to arrest Him. He even healed the High Priest’s servant, Malchus, who lost his ear to Peter’s wild swing. Though He was God He did not prevent their wickedness. What is also astounding here is that all of this would result in justice being proclaimed to the Gentiles and the Gentiles putting their hope and trust in Him. Jesus came in His first coming and was willing to suffer because His salvation from sin was not just for the Jewish people, but also for all nations of the world! These verses that Jesus quotes that He must fulfill are from Isaiah 42.

Isaiah 42:1-9 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 “He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. 3 “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.” 5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it, 6 “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison. 8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. 9 “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

Jesus came to bring forth justice to the nations. He was willing to and did suffer to do this. He went willingly to the cross to bring salvation from sin to the Jewish people and to the whole world. He was appointed by God the Father to be a light to all the nations. He is the one who brings freedom from sin. As God He would not give His glory to another, He alone could and did bring salvation. He did it by Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection to bring justice to the nations.

What all the nations deserve because of their sin is the eternal judgment of God in the lake of fire. The wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23). That is what our sin justly deserves. Yet, God found another way to bring justice to the nations. He gave Himself in the incarnation of Jesus to bear the penalty of the sins of all those who trust in Him as Lord and Savior. He justly, as the perfect God-Man, paid the penalty in full. God’s justice could thus be satisfied in Jesus. Thus the light of salvation was supposed to be brought to all the nations through what Jesus did on the cross and by His resurrection which is being proclaimed to the nations.

Isaiah 49:5-7 also pictures this.

Isaiah 49:5-7 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), 6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, “Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

Not only would this Messiah of God come and bring salvation to Israel, He would also bring His salvation to the ends of the earth. The redeemer of Israel would bring salvation to the world. But notice what comes next. After that He would ultimately be bowed down to and served.

Isaiah 53 also extensively depicts this amazing sacrifice for sins that the Messiah would need to endure, alongside His ultimate exaltation.

Isaiah 53:1-12 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

He was cut off out of the land of the living. He suffered and rendered Himself as a guilt offering in our place. He was buried. He was clearly dead in this chapter. Yet, He would also see His offspring. He had no physical children, so this had to be His spiritual children who would afterwards be recipients of His forgiveness and justification. He would see them. Thus He would have His days prolonged—by the resurrection. God’s good pleasure would prosper Him. He would be allotted a portion with the great, and He would divide the booty with the strong. This all necessarily implies a resurrection and life beyond death!

What an amazing plan and work of God! For Jesus to be exalted and bowed down to He could not stay dead. This was what He had been telling His disciples before His death that they did not understand.

There is another large piece to God’s plan that we need to mention here. God’s messiah would also come and judge the nations for their sin. We hinted at that earlier with the mention of the day of God’s vengeance, but we also see this quite vividly in Psalms 1 and 2.

First, Psalms 1 shows us that there must be a resurrection and judgment for all people. Psalm 1 does this in its contrast between the righteous and the wicked. “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” (v. 5). Meanwhile the way of the righteous is known by God. His leaf will not wither and whatever he does prospers (vv. 3, 6). Nonetheless, in this life before they die many of the wicked do flourish luxuriously. On the other hand many of those trusting in God are abused and mistreated before their deaths. The only way that these verse can be universally true is if there is a resurrection and judgment before God—if there is a time of final judgment for all things. In this life many do not get full justice. This requires a final reckoning.

In line with that, Psalm 2 turns and pictures God and His anointed One in their judgment of the nations. God prophesies that this judgment will come with a rod of iron at the hand of His messiah.

Psalm 2:6-12 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” 7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’” 10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. 11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. 12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

God’s messiah would break the nations with a rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware. Yet, do you remember what Jesus came and did as God’s anointed one in His first coming? He died on the cross for sins. In light of that, the only way that this Psalm, and a host of other messianic prophecies about God’s judgment, could also come true is if Jesus was raised and came back in power to rule and reign. Thus His resurrection was an absolute necessity based on what the Hebrew Scriptures prophesied was to happen.

Psalm 110 helpfully pictures both sides of this. It also pictures our current time of an interlude between Jesus’ first coming and His judgment of the world. This passage was specifically cited by Peter in his first sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:25-38.¹

Psalm 110:1-7 A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” 2 The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” 3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. 4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. 6 He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. 7 He will drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head.

It is worth nothing that Jesus also directly applies this psalm to the Messiah (and thus Himself) in Luke 20:41-44. There He highlights that this Messiah was one who was greater than David even though He was his descendent. Though He was a man, this Messiah was not just a man. He is also God. That necessitated the incarnation.

Beyond that, notice that in the middle of Psalm 110 we see Christ’s intermediary work as a priest. He came to deal with sins as an eternal priest according to God’s unchanging decree. That is a foundational aspect of what the Messiah would do. But then we also see Him waiting until His enemies were put in subjection. At the right time, in the day of His wrath, He would shatter kings and judge the nations. Jesus would deal with sins as our eternal priest, but then God the Father would lift Him up, and sit Him at His right hand. Finally, one day at the proper time, Jesus would stretch forth His strong scepter from Jerusalem. He would rule, reign, and judge.

Thus, it was not God’s purpose for Jesus just to suffer and die for sins. It is also His purpose for Him to rule and reign. God’s plan in Jesus was and is to exercise both sides of His perfect justice. Through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection sin and death were conquered and overcome for all those from all nations who would repent and trust Him as their Lord and Savior. This side of justice is God’s merciful compassion whereby undeserving wicked sinners are justly redeemed and ransomed from their sin. They are forgiven and receive eternal life at the cost of Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf as He mediated for them by His own blood. The other side of justice is God’s just vengeance poured out upon the rest of wicked, rebellious, sinful mankind who do not repent but persist in their evil. This will come through Jesus exercising His just judgment with His rod of iron when He comes back and rules and reigns over all the earth at His second coming.

Currently, and for nearly the last two thousand years, we find ourselves right in the middle of this grand and perfectly just plan of God. Do you see why? Do you see what God is doing right now? Do you see what Jesus’ resurrection was designed to do right now in your life and mine?

Jesus’ resurrection was God’s perfect plan to justly bring forgiveness to all the nations. Jesus is indeed the light of the world. The resurrection is also the means by which one day He will come and justly bring judgment to all the nations. By His resurrection Jesus will become the sovereign, righteous ruler of the world. This is powerful when we see the two halves of God’s justice coming together like this through His resurrection. But it is even more staggering when we consider our place in this.

Think about it. Do you now begin to see what else this amazing plan of God requires right now in between those two aspects of God’s justice? It requires that the nations be called to repentance and to be told of God’s amazing work of redemption through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection before He comes back and judges the world. Romans 10 puts it this way:

Romans 10:11-15a For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent?

Good questions. How are they going to believe? Has anyone been sent? It is precisely in this context of understanding all the prophecies of Messiah coming to be our eternal priest, to be crushed for iniquities, to be a light of the nations so that His salvation may reach the end of the earth, and it is in this context of an understanding of Jesus’ resurrection and future coming again to break the nations with a rod of iron after He waits at the Father’s right hand until His enemies be put under His feet that Jesus proclaimed to the disciples their purpose on earth. Do you remember what that was from reading it earlier?

As Luke 24:47 says, our purpose now as followers of Jesus is that “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” That is our privilege and purpose. As Jesus famously put it in Matthew 28:

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

As Christians we have become the body of Christ on this earth. According to God’s eternal plan, Christ’s purpose, before He comes and judges this world, is to be a light to the nation proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins through what His death on the cross accomplished. He has chosen to carry out this mission through us, His body. As Ephesians 4:4-16 highlights, all those who receive that forgiveness of sins and become children of God are made part of the one body of Christ. We become the hands and feet through which His Spirit works to call people from all nations to repentance and salvation from sin. (cf. also 1 Cor. 10:16, and Ephesians 5:23)

This is the purpose that the resurrection gives to all those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Since He ascended into heaven He has been expanding His resurrection power through His church into all nations, raising fellow wicked sinners from the dead spiritually, cleansing them, and making them righteous. As 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says, with that salvation He makes each one of us ambassadors to proclaim to the rest of the nations that there is a way of rescue from God’s coming judgment through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What then does Jesus’ resurrection accomplish for our lives? Jesus’ resurrection proves He has accomplished the once-for all just satisfaction for the payment of our sins personally before God—if we have trusted in Jesus. In Him we are forgiven, justified, and made fellow heirs of eternal life with Jesus.

Jesus’ resurrection is accomplishing in real time His life giving salvation to sinners from all nations around the world through our proclamation of His salvation through the resurrection power of His Spirit within our lives.

Jesus resurrection will accomplish and result in His return to judge this whole world. When He returns all unrepentant sinners will experience His rod of iron bringing justice.

What this all means is that as Christians we are free. We are free from the eternal judgment of sin. We are free from our enslavement to sin. In Jesus we have been declared righteous and will go to be with Him forever when we die or He returns. This means that no matter what happens to us in this life as we live for God we are secure in His eternal, omnipotent, sovereign care. This means that nothing can take away God’s love for us as Romans 8 strongly reminds us. This means that all our loved ones who know Jesus and die will go to be with God. We will see them again. This means that God is at work to accomplish His good, perfect plan in, through, and despite all our sufferings and trials in this life. This means that we can trust God in everything and have a peace that passes understanding.

To boil it all down, this first means that because of Jesus’ resurrection we can and should have lasting, permanent comfort, strength, and hope for our daily lives here on this earth—no matter what the trials, sufferings, or circumstances might be. Hold onto these truths. Let them invigorate and sustain you. Faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection brings eternal victory to us. Do you truly have this resurrection comfort, strength, and hope in your trials? If not you are holding onto the wrong things, or you do not truly know Jesus. You might just know about Him. What you need is the truth of His resurrection power to save your soul from sin and give you eternal life. Repent of your sin and trust Him.

Secondly, this means that because of Jesus’ resurrection we have a lasting purpose designed by God Himself for our lives personally while we are still here on this earth. God’s plan has not changed just because two thousand years have passed since Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus is still coming to judge this world. Likewise, until that day God still fully intends for us to reach all the ends of the earth. He wants us to share with our generation of people living today Jesus’ life-giving death, burial, and resurrection.

Your purpose and my purpose in life, like the original disciples, is to proclaim repentance for forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name to all nations as we make disciples of Jesus. Through His Spirit He has given to each of us spiritual gifts to do our part in His body. If we are not living for this purpose, then we either do not know Him as Lord and Savior, or we have not adequately learned His purpose for our lives, or we have forgotten His purpose for our lives, or we have been deceived away from the truth of His purpose for our lives, or we are outright running from His purpose for our lives. Regardless of where we may have been with that before today, God is calling us now through His Word to know and understand the true power and purposes of His resurrection for our lives. Will we follow His call?

He does not want us wasting time frittering away our lives on selfish pursuits, on the American Dream, or on having the so-called good life. No, in Ephesians 5:14-18 this is what He calls us to:

Ephesians 5:14-18 “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” 15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

God wants us to know what His will and purpose for our lives is. He has given that to us in His Word. He wants us to walk by His resurrection power and be His instruments for calling people to eternal life.

1 Corinthians 15 is a famous chapter on the resurrection. It poignantly highlights the resurrection of Jesus as the center of the Christian faith and eternal life. Without Jesus rising from the dead we are still in our sins. Only what He did could possibly take away our sins and make us righteous. The end of the chapter gives us some powerful implications of Jesus’ resurrection. The sting of death is gone as 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 famously says. We do not have to fear death. It will just result in our being changed and being given immortal bodies to live with God forever (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). What comfort and hope that brings! It should cause us to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” as 1 Corinthians 15:58 triumphantly declares.

Yet, in the middle of the chapter, there is an admonition that is highlighted much less frequently but probably needs to be heard by all of us at different times in our lives. Not all Christians faithfully live out the immense realities of Jesus’ resurrection. Not all of us have this comfort and hope of God daily sustaining us. Not all of us are living for this purpose that God has designed for our lives through Jesus’ resurrection. To us, at those times, Paul gives some solid exhortation in 1 Corinthians 15:30-34. There he uses his sufferings and trials and a black and white contrast to wake us up. There is no room in the Christian life for lukewarm, lackadaisical living. The resurrection is either true, and it calls us to zealously live for God’s purpose by His power, or it is a lie, and we ought to stop our pretending. Paul starts here with his own example of what it drove him to do in proclaiming Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:30-34 Why are we also in danger every hour? 31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE. 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” 34 Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

It is quite interesting that in 1 Corinthians 4:14 Paul specifically did not make the comparison between the Corinthians behavior and his suffering and yet blessing others in order to shame them. Yet, here in 1 Corinthians 15:30 when he notes that some people do not know of God he highlights that this is to their shame. It would seem that Paul was not up for shaming them by a comparison with himself, but he was up for having them be shamed for not faithfully carrying out the great commission as they should have been doing at Christ’s explicit command. That ought to make us pause.

If we are truly Christians who have believed in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for the payment of our sins, then the purpose of our lives here on this earth is to proclaim the knowledge of God with the repentance for forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name to all nations. That is the main, essential way we are to glorify and serve God. If we lose that focus it is a shameful thing. We have missed the plot. We have forgotten the point of our still being the body of Christ within this world. We need to do what 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 says and stop letting ourselves be influenced by bad company and become sober minded. We need to stop sinning. Then we need to remember the power of Jesus’ resurrection and its daily implications in our lives. It gives us both the strength to carry on through the trials of this life and to faithfully live out God’s plan for our lives to proclaim Jesus to those who have no knowledge of God.

To help us do this, Revelation 1:4-8 gives us a beautiful picture of Jesus. It shows us what He has done, what He will do, and our purpose in living for Him.

Revelation 1:4-8 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

My dear brothers and sisters, this is the purpose of Jesus’ resurrection. It is to bring God’s justice upon this whole world first through Jesus’ atoning work and then through His coming judgment. Our part as the body of Christ is to bring the light of salvation to the whole world through our going and telling them about repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus. We are His priests, His interceders, His ambassadors.

All that being said, I would be remiss if I did not ask. Have you truly trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Our sins deserve God’s eternal judgment in the lake of fire. It is almighty God that we defy and sin against when we do evil, think evil, and speak evil. That will not be tolerated. Will you humble yourself before God, admit your sin, and trust in Jesus’ work on the cross to pay for your sin personally? Will you turn from your sin and surrender to Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Will you receive His amazing undeserved love and forgiveness? Trust Him and let His resurrection power bring life to your soul. It is possible that you have known about Jesus’ salvation, and even mentally agreed to its truthfulness, but have not truly repented and trusted in Jesus and had His resurrection power cleanse your soul. Do not let some cultural Christianity, some general acknowledgment, or some sin that you are holding onto keep you from truly knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Turn to Him.

If you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, are you today living in the power of His resurrection? Are you seeing your part in God’s eternal plan of redemption and carrying out all of what God wants you to in proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations? Are you being the light to the nations as part of the body of Christ that God wants you to be? Are their things in your life that you need to wake up from and realize they are not what you ought to be doing in redeeming the time and in living out the will of God for your life? Our money, our time, our mental focus and our very purpose for living ought to be zealously zeroed in on pursuing God’s plainly declared Great Commission purpose. Is it? Are we living as individuals, as families, and as a church in light of the results of Jesus’ resurrection purposes? He has brought salvation to all nations. He is coming again to judge the world. He has determined to use us to share these truths. Let’s do it wholeheartedly, zealously, with all that we have!

May the truths of Jesus’ resurrection comfort us in the trials we face to know that He is sovereignly in control, that He will bring us all to Himself eternally, and that nothing can separate us from his love. May the truths of Jesus’ resurrection invigorate us to zealously live for the purpose that He has for us in proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus to all nations. May we grow in doing that together as a church, each one of us using the special spiritual gifts that God has given to us. May we build each other up for the work of the ministry and together glorify our Father in Heaven.

May we be real and practical with this. We ought to pray about this daily. We ought to ask ourselves what we are going to do to share the gospel more with people locally and internationally. We ought to ask ourselves what needs to change in our lives to truly make them focused on reaching the nations with the gospel and making disciples. We ought to ask what needs to change in my use of time, in my use of the money I have, in my use of my words, in my study of God’s Word, in my prayer life to really make the purpose of my life be about proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus? We ought to ask, without excuses, where does God want me personally to go to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sin in Jesus name. Locally? Beyond? After all, that is why we are here if we are Christians.

Conclusion

In closing, may we be what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

If you have any questions on any of this or want help in coming to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior please come talk with us. We are available. Let’s pray.

© 2025, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

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